Snapshots
by FanScribbler
Summary: A collection of snapshots of Mystic Falls life. Features Damon, Elena, Stefan, Caroline and Ric. Mostly Delena, but in a roundabout way.
1. Between Worlds

**A/N: **My take on the 120 prompts list (to be found here: h t t p : / / l y t h a a . l i v e j o u r n a l . c o m / 8 6 4 3 4 . h t m l ). This project will consist of a collection of short stories. They won't all belong to the same fandom, but the first few at least will be VD.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Prompt #1: Between Worlds

Set after 2x7 Masquerade

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><p><strong>Between Worlds<strong>

Home again. Slouching on the couch, he swirled his Scotch around in his glass, staring at the flames in the fireplace. He was sitting in the exact same place he'd been the last times he had said goodbye to Katherine, in 1864 when he thought she had died just like a few weeks ago when she had told him it had all been a lie. Only this time he had been the one to go. Time and time again, he hadn't been good enough for her, and now he couldn't even kill her properly. But whatever happened, he always ended up back here. This place was like a museum, preserving his every failure. With all the old leather and paper it even smelled like one. Centuries worth of artifacts were crammed into the shelves of the antique rooms: the books of generations, old trinkets of some ancestor or another, and, of course, dozens of black and white photographs. Family portraits. Of a family that should have been his.

Sometimes, entering this house felt like diving into another time. He could almost imagine that he was that person again. He was Damon Salvatore, respectable son of the respectable Mr. Salvatore of Mystic Falls, walking through the house one last time before he went off to war to become a hero. He'd known exactly who he was and what he wanted. That hadn't quite played out the way he had imagined. Maybe he should have just stayed home. Or maybe he shouldn't have come back.

Without him in the picture to taunt and to use, maybe Katherine wouldn't have been quite so interested in Stefan. After all, without the infamous ménage à trois it would have been boring. And if there was one thing Katherine couldn't stand, it was boredom. He would know, seeing as he was so boring himself, as Katherine never grew tired of telling him. If she hadn't stayed, his whole non-life wouldn't have happened, and the only thing reminding the world that he had existed at all would be a black and white portrait on the mantlepiece.

But she had, and he wasn't. He would have loved to kill her for being so completely indifferent. At least now she was where she should have been all along. He chucked down the rest of his Scotch. Colour was overrated anyway.


	2. Love

Set after the scene in 2x3 Bad Moon Rising where Caroline and Stefan go hunting defenseless bunny.

#2 Love

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><p><strong>Love<strong>

The only reason she managed to get through this bunny hunt was the prospect of going to see Matt later. It was so disgusting. She just couldn't figure out what was more disgusting, that she was biting into cute furry animals or that she didn't mind at all while she was doing it. Not. Think. About it. Stefan seemed to think that "concentration" and "focus" were some sort of magic words. And now we was actually trying to tell her he knew exactly what she was going through.

"I don't believe you."

"Then don't. I just thought it might help you to know that you're not the only one who has some difficulties with the transition."

Caroline threw up her hands. "You call this some difficulties? I know, you said every trait I had when I was alive is heightened, but this is ridiculous! I'm worse than I was when I was thirteen! It's true, I'm completely obnoxious! No wonder Matt can hardly stand me anymore … I mean, I'm horrible. I'm always whiney and snippy or completely hyper!" She paused, groaning. "See? There! I'm doing it again!"

Caroline's face crumpled, and Stefan had to bite his lip in an effort not to laugh at her.

"Will it ever go away?" Caroline asked in a pleading tone.

"You'll learn to control it."

"That means no."

"Not exactly. You'll learn to live with it. It just won't bother you so much anymore. Or the people around you", he added with a little grin.

Caroline didn't seem to think it was funny.

"What about you? If your broodiness is so magnified now, how can you take it? Don't you want to switch is all off?"

"Yeah, I could, but I decided not to a long time ago."

"Why would you do that?"

"I don't like what switching off your emotions does to you. Look at Damon."

"Okay, he's jerk, but…" Caroline trailed off, then asked "What was he like before he died?"

Stefan was taken aback. He stared off into the forest, a sad smile on his face, as he remembered the moment when everything had gone downhill.

"I guess you could say he was in love."


	3. Breathe Again

prompt #3 Breathe again

Set at the beginning of 2x8 Rose

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><p><strong>Breathe Again<br>**

It was all about routines, normal things. Organizing things gave you control, and control was the key to sanity. Organizing had always helped her stay grounded when she was in one of her insecurity frenzies. And if there was one thing she desperately needed since fate had decided not to play nice anymore, it was sanity.  
>If she lost it, how was she supposed to deal with the fact that on top of her craving to kill bunnies to drink their blood and losing Matt because of her urge to drink <em>his<em> blood, she now had to take care of a werewolf who – by the way – would probably kill her if he knew what she was? As would her own mother, who had a professional aversion against people who wanted to drink other people's blood. What a happy thought. Oh. And she was doing it again. Rambling. But at least not out loud anymore. Okay, breathe in – breathe out. And again. Not that she strictly needed to anymore, but anyway, it helped.  
>On the bright side, she was getting really good at this. She didn't freak out nearly as often as she would have a few months ago. She was calm and collected. Mostly. Despite everything.<p>

At times, her life seemed almost normal again. Like now. She was getting ready for school like she had countless times before. If she ignored the fact that Damon – of all people – was leaning against her doorframe as if he belonged there, asking her about the tragic death in the Lockwoods' house the night before, everything _was_ perfectly normal. Okay, so she was talking about covering up the details about a classmate's death while applying mascara, and discussing what another classmate's uncle, who was a werewolf, possibly knew about vampires while packing her bag. But other than that … It was disturbingly domestic.

She wrapped her scarf around her neck as Damon explained that Tyler would only turn into a wolf on a full moon. So there wasn't overly much reason to worry right now. Fluffing up her hair with one last glance into the mirror, she grabbed her jacket and headed for the door. Now she only had to find out what exactly Tyler knew. But that should be a piece of cake. After all, she could just ask him. She wasn't stupid, she was perfectly capable of inconspicuously getting information out of people, whatever _some_ people of her acquaintance might think. She had even fooled Katherine. If that didn't prove she was on par with Mata Hari, she didn't know what did.

Caroline almost jumped a mile as Damon suddenly appeared in front of her.

"A bite from a werewolf can kill a vampire. So don't be his friend. Do you understand me?"

She stared at him, the confident smile dying on her face.

"I understand."

He patted her shoulder and stepped aside to let her pass.

Caroline took a breath and braced herself. She hated it, but Damon was right. And she wished she actually needed to breathe again, but that would never happen.

_Welcome, Caroline_, this _is_ your _life!_

Great, he had made her late for school.


	4. Deep

Prompt #4 Deep

Set in 3x2 The Hybrid

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><p><strong>Deep<br>**

He should have known. It was so predictable that is was almost funny. This ritual of theirs was always the same. He could see it coming, even if Damon was still keeping up the pretense of being firm in his decision to leave these mountains, and quickly. They should never have come in the first place, but where Stefan was concerned there was no stopping Elena. Ric knew that, which was the only reason he had brought Damon along. This treat was almost worth the danger it put them all in, he thought as he watched them both standing waist-deep in the river. Damon had his back to him, but Ric didn't need to see his face to know that he was trying to stare Elena down. This wasn't the first time that Ric witnessed such an attempt, so he was pretty sure that Damon already knew he had lost. He really couldn't fathom how he could have thought even for a second that Damon could win here. Ah, there it was. The critical moment.

Elena seemed to be pleading, radiating desperation.

This was it. Damon looked away only for a second, but it was obvious what would come next. And of course, it did.

"Okay. Okay. But we're out of here before the moon is full and I'm werewolf bait."

Ric turned and grabbed his backpack as he saw Damon gesture at Elena. Great. Now that that part was over and done with, maybe they could at least stop wasting time. When they were back on the path through the forest Ric couldn't resist any longer. He knew Damon was only a few feet behind him, so he kept looking straight ahead and kept his voice low. "You really are useless, you know."

"Thanks. Always a pleasure to help you out."

Ric chuckled. "You're in deep, my friend."

He heard Damon stop mid-step for a second and knew he had that slightly confused look on his face. "So … care to enlighten me what you're talking about?"

Ric grinned. "No."

"What, so you're just chatting to get rid of the awkward silence? Why _Ric_, so thoughtful of you to try and make me feel comfortable."

"_Always_ a pleasure to help you out."

"Maybe it would be helpful if you could hint at what you're helping _with_."

Ric glanced over his shoulder. "You're supposed to think about it yourself, that's kind of the point. And it's more fun this way."

Damon scowled. "You know, I'm just seconds away from killing you."

"Nah, you know you wouldn't."

"What makes you so sure?"

"You're in deep." With that Ric quickened his pace to catch up to Elena.

The scowl slipped from Damon's face as he stared after Ric.


	5. Innocence

Prompt #5 Innocence

Set in 3x9 Homecoming

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><p><strong>Innocence<br>**

Damon switched off his phone and slid it back into his pocket. Elena watched, as he continued pacing in front of the fireplace.

"Katherine wanted to say _good-bye_," he said finally.

Elena sat down on the couch. "That's all? Huh."

"Yeah."

"Well, whatever this was really about, I have a feeling that we'll find out sooner or later."

Damon turned away from the fire to look at her. "Exactly what I'm afraid of. Did I mention that I don't trust her?" He walked over to the couch and sank into the cushions next to her, throwing his head back.

For a moment Elena just sat there and looked at him. It was hard for her to admit that maybe she would never get Stefan back. That maybe she would have to let him go. But she couldn't even imagine what it had to be like for Damon. If it was her brother… Only now did it occur to her how strange it was that she really did trust him. She trusted Damon, who had snapped her brother's neck, snapped Alaric's neck, compelled Caroline and this journalist and who knew whom else to play his girlfriend and letting him snack on them. But here they were.

"What happened to us?" She wasn't quite sure if she was asking Damon or the powers that be in general.

"Hm?"

"I can hardly even remember the time when there was nothing more important in my life than the next school dance. Those were the times. I had no idea there was such a thing as evil ancient vampire families." She gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "I liked cheerleading. Can you believe that?"

Damon smirked. "I can't quite imagine you in that skimpy outfit. Why don't you describe it a little more?"

"You're impossible." Elena chucked a pillow at him.

"Ouch! I was wrong, you _do_ know how to handle a weapon." He grabbed the pillow, hugged it to himself and leaned back again, chuckling. "What brought on this bout of philosophic introspection?"

Elena sighed. "I don't know. I was just taking stock, sort of. Only two years ago, we were all so innocent." Damon gave her a look. "Yeah, okay. Maybe not you." She could have cried when she added "Or _Stefan_ for that matter." It still hurt to think about what she had learned about Stefan's history. "And now I'm stabbing people in the back, literally. Maybe you weren't so far off when you said that it was very Katherine. And Stefan's off somewhere slaughtering innocent people and having _fun_ with it." She took a deep breath. "It's strange, you know, I always thought that out of the two of you he was the innocent one. At least the _more_ innocent one. Don't say it, I know. I did read his journal. But I could never really believe that he could ever be like that again. That he would want to _stay_ that way. I didn't _want_ to believe it, anyway."

Damon sat up and reached over to put both hands on her forearms. "Elena, you're _not_ like _Katherine_. You were pretty good at scheming today, though. You might be getting there after all." He smirked again.

"Oh, and you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Damon turned instantly serious. "_Surprisingly_, I really wouldn't. Fortunately there's not the slightest danger of you ever going psycho bitch. Not as long as you keep agonizing like this over every little thing. In fact, you couldn't pass for Katherine if you _tried_. Granted, you're not a girl scout anymore. But what you did was necessary."

"Was it? I don't know. Maybe it was. Still, it's horrible. I used to be able to trust people."

"Welcome to _my_ world," Damon deadpanned. He leaned back, carefully taking his hands off her arms when he realized he was still holding on to her.

Suddenly Elena felt like she had let him down. She was sitting here, complaining, while he had, in all probability, just lost his brother for good. And whatever he may say, he did still trust people. She knew he trusted _her_, despite his track record with that kind of thing. It was quite… endearing really. The least she could do was reassure him that she wouldn't make him regret it again.

"You can trust _me_. I want you to know that, okay?"

He smiled and squeezed her hand. "I know."

"You know, I think you were right."

"Of course I was."

Typical Damon attitude, he must be better. "I think I would have liked you back in 1864." Looking at him now, she could imagine the person he must have been once.

Damon raised his eyebrows in question.

"Whether you believe it or not, you're not half as jaded as you think."

It reminded him eerily of Katherine's words. _Sweet, innocent Damon_. He closed his eyes.

"Shut up."


End file.
